Health Care

A database of medical industry payments to physicians and teaching hospitals shows the industry in 2014 provided food and beverages for 558 physicians who listed KU Medical Center as their primary business address. The medical school is investigating whether these physicans violated its rules. Some physicians have questioned the accuracy of the data.

TriWest Healthcare Alliance has chosen a site near Kansas City International Airport for a major business expansion. The company’s growth is accelerating partly because of new rules that allow military veterans more access to health care providers outside the Veterans Affairs system.

The deal, if regulators approve it, will create the nation’s largest health insurer by enrollment, covering about 53 million U.S patients. In just three weeks, starting with Aetna’s $35 billion bid for Humana on July 3, the landscape of health care has been altered in a buyout frenzy that could transform five massive health companies into just three.

As complaints grow about exorbitant drug prices, pharmaceutical companies are coming under pressure to disclose the development costs and profits of those medicines and the rationale for charging what they do. Bills have been introduced in at least six state legislatures in the last year, aiming to make drug companies justify their prices.

Eli Lilly & Co. reported Wednesday that an experimental medication might slow mild Alzheimer's if people take it early enough, one of a handful of drugs in late-stage testing in the frustrating hunt for a better treatment.

If you don’t mind veering off the beaten path a little, we have some ideas. We dispatched Kansas City Star writers in every direction to find some of the odder attractions in Missouri and Kansas. Some of these places might not be your final destination, but then again, if you like quirky, they could be. And several are right here in the Kansas City area.

Many hospitals and medical facilities have installed gardens and green spaces to help patients during their recoveries. And several notable such gardens are in the Kansas City area, including at Liberty Hospital and Shawnee Mission Medical Center. They offer “just a very peaceful place to go” during troubled times.

A Food and Drug Administration proposal to issue warnings on the possible dangers posed by mercury in dentistry fillings was quietly tabled in 2011. The proposal and its rejection put the Obama administration in the awkward position of concealing for over three years a safety communication potentially affecting millions of Americans.

At least eight states, congressional leaders and numerous Republican presidential hopefuls have now called for investigations into whether Planned Parenthood clinics have violated laws that prohibit the sale of aborted fetal tissue and organs. The action came after the release of two undercover videos.

Liberty Hospital has begun work on a $4 million update of its hospital main lobby, surgery waiting room, patient registration and lab waiting areas, gift shop, and some patient rooms and nursing stations.

Pfizer has expanded its research on vaccines to eventually safeguard people from cradle to grave, from shots for pregnant women to protect their babies from the moment of birth to vaccines for senior citizens with waning immune systems, company officials said Tuesday during a media briefing.

Winning the contract to modernize the military’s electronic health records would be a huge coup for Cerner. One health technology website called it “among the most coveted health IT contracts in history.” But it’s a mammoth task fraught with potential pitfalls. And a contract of that size could change the culture of the company.

Some Republicans in Congress wanting to increase medical research spending — some of which would go to the University of Kansas Medical Center — face criticism from budget hawks. With grant funding in his eastern Kansas district at stake, U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder has become one of the funding bill’s most vocal co-sponsors.

After years of debate about whether the government should encourage end-of-life planning, Medicare is now proposing to reimburse doctors for having conversations with patients about whether and how they would want to be kept alive if they become too sick to speak for themselves.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania examined health insurance claims from one of the country’s largest private insurers in 2012 (pre-Obamacare) and 2013 (post-Obamacare). They found that spending on the pill quickly fell 39 percent — from $33 to $20, on average. Spending on IUDs plummeted 68 percent, from $262 to $84. The total savings: $1.4 billion.

Johnson succeeds Julie Quirin, who has been promoted to the new job of senior vice president of hospital operations for the St. Luke’s Health System. Johnson was most recently CEO of St. Luke’s South Hospital in Overland Park.